Idaho Woman Sentenced for Killing Man and Taking Jeep

CALDWELL -- A Melba woman who killed a man after going home with him from a Nampa bar was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday.

Nicole Kirtley, 35, will be eligible for parole after nine years. She shot and killed 59-year-old George Richardson Jr. at his rural Nampa home and stole his Jeep in February 2013. Police found the Jeep submerged in the Snake River with a rock on the gas pedal about two miles from Richardson’s house.

A cab driver saw the pair leaving a bar together the night before Richardson was killed, and another witness spotted Kirtley leaving Richardson’s house the next morning. Prosecutors say she also admitted the killing to another inmate in the Ada County Jail. Kirtley pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in January as part of a plea deal. She was originally charged with second-degree murder for the killing.